[PThomas]

you've been magically assigned to either improve the Fed Ex playoffs or come up with some REASONABLE alternative to it...what would your plan be??

[Kalen Braley]

I've mentioned it before...

Miss one week and you are out.  What other playoff system do you know of where you can take a week off, when you are scheduled to play and still advance to the next week.??

And I'd change the point structure to better reward top 10s...Rich Beem being the poster child of this.

[Tim Bert]

I think top 10 in the previous week ought to at least get you a ticket to the following week's event, even if the points don't change.  There's still a lot of money on the line for these guys even if they don't have enough points to win it all.  

I'd like to see the finale be a 32 player match play with the seeds determined by top 22 point accumulation plus the top 10 from the 70 player event.  If there is some overlap, then you go a little deeper into the top point accumulators.  Winner of the match play takes home the prize - this would prevent someone from prematurely locking up the title and rendering the final event meaningless.  Unfortunately, this wouldn't play very well on TV.

[Kalen Braley]

I think the final event should be chopped down to the top 16 instead of the top 30 and have it be match play.

The main benefit to this would be that the final 16 would likely all be marquee names, so regardless of who won or lost, it could get good rankings thru the weekend.  This in contrast to the 64 man event earlier in the year when many, if not most of the top seeds are already bounced by the round of 16...

[Paul Richards]

the what??
 

[JESII]

the what??
 

Perfect!


For me, less players the first week! How many sports let more teams into the playoffs than actually have a spot in the league next year?

Week 1 - 90
Week 2 - 75
Week 3 - 60
Week 4 - 30

Just a thought, but who really cares if Rich Beem plays this week or not? All the attention is at the top, right?

[JESII]

We're getting to be real buddies...soon enough we'll have to have a couple beers together and maybe stumble into a round of golf...

[Steve_ Shaffer]

This is the best proposal I've seen in the press thus far:

http://theberlinzoo.blogspot.com/2007/08/fix-fedex-cup.html


I might be interested in "something" where:

a.144 players don't get into the first event and 120 don't get into the second event.The top 50 players from the season for each of the 3 events sounds good to me. Does every NFL or MLB team make the playoffs? Who cares about the NASCAR model?
b.a non-winner in the regular season doesn't get to surpass a 5 time winner after the first event.In other words, more points given to winners and less given to also rans even if they have top 10 finishes. There are winners and then there is everyone else. I'm not a fan of  the "top 10" mentality. The reduction of points for the start of the FedEx is absurd. I like the Berlin Zoo method as above.
c.a series of 3 events to determine the top 8 who then play a round robin match play event at the Tour Championship or a double elimination match play event similar to the NCAA College Baseball World Series.
d. It's unrealistic to expect the top players to play the WGC, the PGA, take a week off, play 4 events and then play the President's Cup and/or the Ryder Cup. I don't know how to handle this other than give the top 5 players a bye in either of the first 2 events, if they so desire.

[Jim Colton]

I think they should have a stroke and match play events running concurrently.  Start with 32-man stroke play on Weds...if you lose in the first round you are not guaranteed a spot in the match play field the following week.  The top 16 in the stroke play get to replace the 16 guys who lost in the first round.  The guys that lose Weds can play themselves back in by entering the stroke play (which starts Thurs as normal) and finishing top 16.

The goal of the playoffs would be to accumulate match play wins.  Win the match play bracket for the week is worth and extra point.  Each match in the Tour Championship is worth two with the finale worth three.

 

[Mike_Trenham]

Winner Gets Cash not an Annuity.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Change the tournaments that host the FedExCup playoffs every year so that the final four are not always the same.  Rotate amongst all of the summer tournament venues.  That way tournaments like the Canadian Open and the Wyndham would get good fields which they deserve.

[Jeffrey Prest]

Just a thought, but who really cares if Rich Beem plays this week or not?

You haven't read 'Bud, Sweat and Tees', I take it?

I think you'll find that if more Rich Beems played every week, a debate on how to make people care more about the PGA Tour would be redundant.

Item 2 for the defence:

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2007/9/2/id-pay-15-to-play-el-dump-o-rama-down-the-street-with-the-bo.html

[JESII]

Jeffrey,

I was not trying to specifically identify Beem, just the guys in his position in these rankings...no offense intended...140 players is too many to play the first week, and 120 is too many the second week...

[Jeremy_Glenn.]

Top 64 make it to the playoffs.

Playoffs last six weeks, match play.
as usual, #1 plays #64, #2 plays #62, and so on...)

Each week, the players play a number of times against each other, best 3 out of 5 moves on.  Matches start with 18 holes, on Thursday, then 18 on Friday, 18 on Saturday and, if need be, 18 or even 36 on Sunday.

[Jim Franklin]

Who cares? We have 4 majors, Tour Championship, Ryder Cup, President Cup, etc... We have enough already. Give the fans a break, give the players a break. I think Finchem is trying to make more dough for himself and that is it. These guys make plaenty of money already and play plenty of tournaments together. Can the stupid cup sooner rather than later.

[Bill Shamleffer]

Two weeks.

Week 1: This week, the old GGO. Those ranked 17 through 160 in the Fed Ex points are in.  The top 32 go to Atlanta next week.

Week 2: Begin on Wed. with the 32 from the GGO playing an 18 hole match-play, with the the 16 winners advancing to Thursday.

Thursday through Friday, 16, 36 hole matches each day, continue to have the losers play-on so as to determine how much each gets of the purse and the deferred pension.  Also, this way the fans will see the top 16 play each day and TV will have  plenty of golf to show.

[Cabell Ackerly]

1st: the name...

Change it! Call it the Hagen Cup (Walter Hagen).

I'd don't care if it's the "Hagen Cup sponsored by FedEx"... or whoever - but stop calling it the FedEx Cup. It is silly, and will be even sillier in 5 years when FedEx bails on the idea, and it becomes the GEICO Cup (I can see the caveman commercials now).

2nd - the format...

For the Tour Championship, it might be interesting to see them adopt a format similar to the World Cup in Soccer. It could be one long week or spread out over 2.

[tlavin]

The FedEx cup appeals to those who mainly play for the cash, which is only 97% of the touring pros.  The trick is to keep the top players in the field, which might distract people from pro and college football here in the States.  The jury is out, but things have gone pretty well for Tim Finchem.

[Tim Gavrich]

I've never really liked the idea of the Tour Championship.  30 players is too small a field, in my opinion.  I'd eliminate the Tour Championship, play the first three Playoff weeks as scheduled, then take a week off and begin the Quest for the Card series, which would give the top-tier players a week off before the final event of the year, the PGA Championship.

Yes, I think that Glory's Last Shot should finally earn its nickname.  It would do this by crowning not only the champion of the PGA, but also the champion of the PGA Tour.  And ideally, one would hope to see a PGA Championship Sunday duel between two top players, where they are playing not only for the Wanamaker trophy, but also the FedEx Cup.  The PGA would have to be moved about 5 weeks later, but I don't see much problem with that.

I've always thought that the season should end with a major, rather than a facsimile of such.

[Darren_Kilfara]

I'd like to see more medal-matchplay events, along the lines of what happens in the event of a tie after 72 holes at the US Open (or what used to happen in the old Dunhill Cup format). The problem with pure matchplay is that matches can end too early for TV's liking...so why not drag them out to guarantee 18 holes and potential two- and three-shot swings down the stretch?

Here's an idea for the Tour Championship: top 32 golfers (instead of 30) advance to the final week of the season and are divided into eight groups of four. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, you have a round robin of medal-matchplay within each group: three points for a win, one for a tie. The top two finishers in each group advance to the final round on Sunday, which is then conducted at normal strokeplay, except you subtract the number of points accrued during the group stage from the winning score. In other words, someone who won all three of his group matches would start at -9, whereas someone who sneaked through in second place with a win and a draw would only start at -4. TV would be happy; the format would be pretty intuitive; every match would count in the group stages; and then you'd likely get a final-round shootout on Sunday with an elite, small field.

Cheers,
Darren

[Kyle Harris]

My idea is for the one that doesn't exist.

[Darren_Kilfara]

The PGA would have to be moved about 5 weeks later, but I don't see much problem with that.

The problem, Tim, is that the football season will have started by then. No way the PGA voluntarily goes head-to-head with the NFL on the final day of its biggest championship. (The Ryder Cup retains interest because it's a unique, once-every-two-years event; the least prestigious major won't have that same appeal.)

Cheers,
Darren

[Tom Birkert]

I would scrap it. Like it or not, the Majors are what matters. The problem is that Finchem doesn’t make any money from the Majors, hence the constant promoting of the Players’ as the “Fifth Major” and the ridiculous Fed-Ex Cup (whose point re-setting prior to the final 4 events is stupid).

I agree with the notion of moving the US PGA back to make it the last / penultimate event in the calendar for top pros. If anything I’d contract the Tour Championship down even more (Major winners plus top 20 in the money list). I’d also move it around to different courses to try and inject some life into it.

What I would then do is try and incorporate some sort of system whereby those struggling to hang onto their card and those trying to get a card have some sort of seeded match play series over the course of 3-4 weeks. The big boys aren’t interested at that time of year so let them enjoy some rest, it would give an opportunity to showcase up and coming stars (as well as some more famous names who have slipped a little). The match play element would create excitement and they’d be playing for something that actually meant something (PGA card and exemption) rather than extra money into an already bulging bank account. I also think this system could work if it was done as strokeplay, I just would like to see more matchplay on tour.

In effect, bring forward Q school and promote that – it’s often called the biggest and most pressurised tournament in golf.

[A.G._Crockett]

Since the PGA Tour controls NONE of the majors, they are always going to be looking for a way to get something that the Tour DOES control to the level of the majors.  The Players is big, but will never be it.  The Tour Championship is big, but will never be it.  The FedEx Cup is just the latest attempt, and it'll be big, but won't be it either.  The majors are just that; the majors.  

Finchem will tweak the format in the years to come, but the FedEx Cup in some form is here to stay.  And they will NEVER tell the top guys that if they skip a week they're out.  That would marketing suicide, since those guys can call that bluff.

[tlavin]

This thing is growing on me, maybe at a glacial pace, but it's growing nonetheless.  How many people would have paid any attention to the Deutsche Bank event this weekend if we didn't have the Tiger/Phil pairing (due to the FedExCup standings) and the added drama of the Monday play?  I suspect that interest in the event was much heightened.  It remains to be seen if momentum will build at Cog Hill this week...

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